The Buber-Scholem Controversy about Hasidic Tale and Hasidism - is there a solution?

Excerpt: The shrill sounds of the now seemingly outdated controversy between Gershom Scholem and Martin Buber at the beginning of the sixties are still in the minds of every student of Hasidic literature and thought. - The "Scholem-community" feels content and the "Buber-community" upset. We can summarize the case in a few words. Martin Buber, the pioneer of Hasidism in the Western World, held the position that whoever would want to understand Hasidism had to turn to Hasidic tale as here, in the tales of the Hasidim, real Hasidic life was to be found. Whereas in the Hasidic homilies we meet mere non-creative tradition especially in the form of Kabbalah. Buber did not totally deny the importance of the Hasidic Midrash but he regarded it just as a commentary, i.e. as secondhand material, whereas, in his view, the tale was a true mirror of real Hasidic life [...]

This paper was first published in:
Gershom Scholem‘s „Major trends in Jewish mysticism“ 50 years after : proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on the History of Jewish Mysticism / ed. by Peter Schäfer and Joseph Dan. - Tübingen : Mohr, 1993, S. 327 - 336
ISBN: 3-16-146143-6